Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot at Moxie

Borders blur between dream and reality in Jose Rivera's magic-realism piece, even between the Barstow desert and young Gabriela's military housing, where the neighbor women, who bore her to tears, are just "sex slaves" for macho husbands and where, she's convinced, the cacti are closing in.

Her husband of 11 years, Benito, is a Gulf War vet with PTSD issues based on a horrific decision. For the last two months, he's been "in the field" doing work as dull, to his action-hungry mind, as her life at home. But has he grown light years from the sensitive man she married?

And just what is real to Gabby? Her human-sized cat teases a coyote, dressed in black leather (and later morphs into an un-dead Dracula). Sand flows from her ice cube tray. She has frequent conversations with the moon, who not only talks back, he comes out of her refrigerator and complains that he hasn't been the same since Shakespeare's Juliet called him "inconstant."

And yet, he's the sanest of the bunch, including 14-year-old Martin. And here another border blurs: does Martin worship Gabby, as he says, or is he just eager to lose his virginity and she's the nearest object?

In Act two, the insides of her house close in, as if there were wars within wars within wars. Amid the surrealistic blurs and warps, Gabby needs a definite answer about her marriage.

Her plight recalls Mr. Dylan's: "I woke up on the wrong side, day-dreaming 'bout the way things a-really are."

The play's title evokes Dali's dripping clocks and "From the Tears of Women." But the spare, poetic, highly sensual presentation recalls the great Andalusian poet/playwright Federico Garcia Lorca, who could conjure lyricism from barren landscapes.

So do Christopher Ward's scenic design and Jennifer Brawn Gittings' artwork: bright, golden sand and a blue-black sky. You can almost hear the wind - or music miles away (in Matt Lescault-Wood's subtle sound design).

John Padilla plays a suave, funny Moon, a bit reminiscent of Dali. Steven Lone's Coyote is really randy. Anna Rebek's Cat is an appropriately saucy tease. And Apollo Blatchley's young Martin is hormone-enriched to overflowing (everyone is horny - sex-famished, in fact - and headed off at the pass).

Like Lorca, by concentrating on the elemental, Rivera raises questions about allegiance, a woman's "place," the tugs of flesh and spirit. He often expresses the questions in Lorca-like poetry.

In many ways director Dana I. Harrell does a commendable job with this slippery play. An exception is the poetry. Whenever the actors have a "poetic" line, they slow down, stretch and fondle it for all it's worth. In effect, they savor the words for the audience.

It's said if an actor cries the audience won't. The same could be said of precious, "theater poetry."

Jorge Rodriguez gets all of Benito's pent-up frustrations and inability/reticence to articulate them. What's needed, to balance the story: a suggestion that, as a character says, "it wouldn't kill him to learn something from his wife."

Jacqueline Grace Lopez's Gabriela effectively wavers from perplexity to assertion, imagination and reality (she reverses the "normal" sense of those words). Lopez makes Gabriela's plight - as a woman, a Latina, a military wife - truly compelling.

Image by Daren Scott

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all

Previous article

Pet pig perches in pocket

Escondido doula gets a taste of celebrity
Next Article

Gilbert Castellanos, Buddha Trixie, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Shane Hall, Brian Jones Rock ‘N’ Roll Revival

Grand Socials, gigs, and record releases in Del Mar, City Heights, Solana Beach, Little Italy, and Ocean Beach

Borders blur between dream and reality in Jose Rivera's magic-realism piece, even between the Barstow desert and young Gabriela's military housing, where the neighbor women, who bore her to tears, are just "sex slaves" for macho husbands and where, she's convinced, the cacti are closing in.

Her husband of 11 years, Benito, is a Gulf War vet with PTSD issues based on a horrific decision. For the last two months, he's been "in the field" doing work as dull, to his action-hungry mind, as her life at home. But has he grown light years from the sensitive man she married?

And just what is real to Gabby? Her human-sized cat teases a coyote, dressed in black leather (and later morphs into an un-dead Dracula). Sand flows from her ice cube tray. She has frequent conversations with the moon, who not only talks back, he comes out of her refrigerator and complains that he hasn't been the same since Shakespeare's Juliet called him "inconstant."

And yet, he's the sanest of the bunch, including 14-year-old Martin. And here another border blurs: does Martin worship Gabby, as he says, or is he just eager to lose his virginity and she's the nearest object?

In Act two, the insides of her house close in, as if there were wars within wars within wars. Amid the surrealistic blurs and warps, Gabby needs a definite answer about her marriage.

Her plight recalls Mr. Dylan's: "I woke up on the wrong side, day-dreaming 'bout the way things a-really are."

The play's title evokes Dali's dripping clocks and "From the Tears of Women." But the spare, poetic, highly sensual presentation recalls the great Andalusian poet/playwright Federico Garcia Lorca, who could conjure lyricism from barren landscapes.

So do Christopher Ward's scenic design and Jennifer Brawn Gittings' artwork: bright, golden sand and a blue-black sky. You can almost hear the wind - or music miles away (in Matt Lescault-Wood's subtle sound design).

John Padilla plays a suave, funny Moon, a bit reminiscent of Dali. Steven Lone's Coyote is really randy. Anna Rebek's Cat is an appropriately saucy tease. And Apollo Blatchley's young Martin is hormone-enriched to overflowing (everyone is horny - sex-famished, in fact - and headed off at the pass).

Like Lorca, by concentrating on the elemental, Rivera raises questions about allegiance, a woman's "place," the tugs of flesh and spirit. He often expresses the questions in Lorca-like poetry.

In many ways director Dana I. Harrell does a commendable job with this slippery play. An exception is the poetry. Whenever the actors have a "poetic" line, they slow down, stretch and fondle it for all it's worth. In effect, they savor the words for the audience.

It's said if an actor cries the audience won't. The same could be said of precious, "theater poetry."

Jorge Rodriguez gets all of Benito's pent-up frustrations and inability/reticence to articulate them. What's needed, to balance the story: a suggestion that, as a character says, "it wouldn't kill him to learn something from his wife."

Jacqueline Grace Lopez's Gabriela effectively wavers from perplexity to assertion, imagination and reality (she reverses the "normal" sense of those words). Lopez makes Gabriela's plight - as a woman, a Latina, a military wife - truly compelling.

Image by Daren Scott

Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.